Things can change in an instant. Apple was known for its satisfied customers. Boeing delivered planes on time. And for more than a half century, Atlas Foundry had safely stored propane at its Tacoma plant. All three made news last fall when bad news threatened to damage relations with customers and the public.

How each company recovered from these difficulties provides a useful window into crisis communications, the techniques of anticipating and managing bad news. If you think your company has no chance of a call from 60 Minutes, think again. Remember the excessive heat in Microsoft's Xbox, E. coli bacteria in Jack in the Box hamburgers, lead paint in Mattel toys, and defects in Firestone tires? Like the executives of those companies, you too have a reputation to protect. Bad things happen to the best of us, big or small, and often in the most surprising ways.

Take Apple. The hip maker of the iPod, iMac and other products thought it had done a great thing when it dramatically lowered the price on its iPhone. Nothing new there; technology companies often cut prices during a product cycle. But think different. Apple's price cut angered those who had purchased the product just weeks earlier.

Or take Boeing, which had dazzled analysts and airlines with the innovations of its new 787 Dreamliner. But then Boeing announced a delay in delivery of its new plane by six months, the longest ever for a Boeing jetliner. To repair damage to their names, Boeing and Apple launched communication campaigns aimed at customers, the news media and the public. The CEOs apologized, and it helped. Sorry is a powerful word when it's sincere and coupled with steps to make sure an error isn't repeated.

Compared with those giants, Atlas Foundry rarely made headlines. Atlas kept a low profile as an employer of 140 in Tacoma's Nalley Valley. A fire damaged the plant in 2002, but the company formally known as Atlas Castings & Technology experienced little or no controversy during its 108 years in operation. That changed Oct. 6 with a fireball that soared 1,000 feet. Several people were hurt, including a truck driver who later died. Video played on the evening news and on YouTube. Reporters wanted answers. Plaintiff attorneys made preparations for a possible lawsuit. Government officials launched investigations. Like the Greek god, Atlas carried a world of hurt.

Atlas had no crisis communications professionals. No spin doctors. No spokespeople. No plan. Why would it? But that's a typical mistake, says Kathleen Fearn-Banks, a University of Washington communications professor and author of Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach. She advises clients to dispel the notion that it can't happen to them. She tells them to form a team of employees, managers and lawyers to analyze what could go wrong, such as an accident or an employee accused of a crime. What do you do? What do you say?

Fearn-Banks once advised a nursing home to create a plan in case a resident was discovered dead after several days. (They didn't, and it happened. The surviving family went straight to the news media.) Don't wait for an emergency. "Once the crisis hits, people lose their mind," she says. I've seen this firsthand, working as a journalist and in government. When things get tense, some keep cool; others just blurt things out and wonder what came over them. A lifetime of goodwill can evaporate in an instant.

After the explosion, managers at Atlas were overwhelmed. They had to clean up and get the foundry running again. Who had time for the news media? For reporters trying to fill their notebooks, there were no handouts, no fact sheets, no after-hours cell phone to call for answers, so some just trolled the Internet for information about the company. For the first 36 hours or so, many media reports said the company had no comment or nobody was available. "They were frazzled," says Mark Briant, a communicator with Firmani Associates, hired 10 days after the explosion. And that's scary. If you're not available during a crisis, there's greater risk of pure speculation and errors about your company's practices.